Chapter 7 Review

After reading chapter 7 of, The Connected Educator, I feel that I have a better understanding of sustaining a momentum for my future communities.  One thing I have really taken away from this chapter is, learning communities, like gardens, flourish when they are cultivated, when they are nourished as they evolve and mature.  Neglected or taken for granted, they languish, losing their splendor and appeal.  It is hard to build a learning community, but it is very rewarding for every member in the end.  Their is always a leader in the group, but the leader needs to be receptive to new ideas and willing to do what is best for the group.  The book states this as, appreciative inquiry.  Appreciative inquiry is where it is a valuable approach to sustaining learning and change in communities and networks.  The book states, learners work from a "what if?" or strengths, perspective rather than a deficit perspective.  This idea starts with the idea of discovery.  Discovery is where people share their stories with one another that illustrate when they feel the group is at its best.  Next comes dream.  Dream is where the entire learning group envisions the future and the purpose they are trying to reach.  The third stage is design.  Design is where the community develops a design for its organization based on the dream stage.  The last stage is destiny.  Destiny is where the learning community implements the changes they have discussed.  Shared stories become the basis for envisioning the future.

For my readers, I am curious to know, would you share personal stories to your learning communities, or would you take the back seat and listen and learn from their stories?

The chapter went on to state how important it is to assess and evaluate your group.  How can groups assess their group? That is an easy answer! (Well after reading the chapter, it is an easy answer of course!) The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) is a basis for informal ways of assessing progress in both local and global communities.  It is always a good idea to make sure everyone in your group is on the same page or else that can lead to conflict.  One example of this is walkthroughs.  Walkthroughs provides teachers with feedback and they allow teachers to discuss opportunities for additional improvement.  It is important in communities to know their fellow members' concerns.  The book states a couple of different stages of concern that members can feel: awareness, personal, informational, management, consequence, collaboration, and refocusing.  After hearing how members are feeling, it is important to think of ways to move forward.  Sometimes, the group might not change anything due to the concerns, but other times the group has to come up with a whole new direction to move to.  The book states eight ways to help community members identify the level at which a new practice is being implemented.  The eight stages are: nonuse, orientation, preparation, mechanics, routine, refinement, integration, and renewal.  

All in all, it is hard to sustain a community, but it is very rewarding in the end.  To make a group work, you have to make sure that every member is on the same page and is expressing how they feel at all times.  Sustaining a learning community is very important in the field of education.  Educators have to work together with their co-teachers in their same grade level.  For people who are not education majors this means, that in one school all of the second grade teachers have to collaborate in many ways to make sure they are staying with the same curriculum.  This can be difficult because you did not have the ability to pick your group members.  This is where the assess and evaluate takes place, making sure that each members concerns and thoughts are being put out on the table.  In each grade level, their is a group leader, this leader needs to make sure that each teacher is feeling connected and is able to get their stories out there.  Sharing stories and experiences as a teacher is very important because it is important to always adapt new teaching ideas.  You can learn from one another in the group.  Make sure the whole group has one focus-being a better teacher to your students and how can you achieve that?